An electronic combination lock of the general type used herein is described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,061,923. The lock described in the above patent is manufactured and sold as the Mas-Hamilton X-07 lock by the Mas-Hamilton Group of Lexington, Ky.
Combination locks are used on containers such as vaults which may, in turn, contain automatic teller machines (ATM). To service or repair an ATM, access within the vault containing the ATM is required. Service and repair involves not only malfunctions, broken or worn out parts of the ATM, but also the replenishment of the cash supply within the ATM and to collect deposits made at the ATM.
Due to the highly sensitive nature of the service or repair of an ATM, it has been customary in the past to use a two-person service/repair team. This concept is used to reduce the chances of theft of the cash either from the cash dispensing unit or from the ATM deposit collection container. The use of two-person service/repair teams is very expensive; and in an effort to reduce the cost of operations of ATMs, the two-person team in many cases has been replaced with a single person to repair/service the ATMs. With the use of only a single service person, the incidences of theft from the ATMs have dramatically increased. Service personnel must have the knowledge of the combination for the lock on the vault in order to gain access to the vault for the normal service or repair function and then the service person might return to the ATM location at a later time, open the vault and remove money therefrom. Also, several people may have been assigned the job of servicing the ATM at different times and, therefore, it is impossible to determine which of the individuals may have taken the money.
To combat this weakness in the security of the ATM and its supply of cash following service by the service personnel, it would be necessary for a second person to go to the ATM in order to change the combination of the lock. This change of the combination requires a lock technician and a considerable amount of time resulting in still additional costs and charges to the organization maintaining and servicing the ATM.
Further, since there are multiple individuals and perhaps very frequent changes of the combination in the lock, it is imperative that very accurate record keeping be performed and that a list of the current combinations for all ATMs being serviced by that particular service organization must be maintained together with a complete listing of the individuals who have had access to the lock with a specific combination.
To avoid implication in theft, a service person might not take money from an ATM when the authorized entry to the ATM is accomplished for the purposes of service or repair.
There is a relatively high turnover rate of employees in this type of an organization and in many cases, the employees leave without notice; therefore, it may be necessary to change the combination on the ATM vault very rapidly after the individual terminates employment with the service organization. If no notice is given, there may be a period of time following the employee's decision to terminate his employment and the recognition of the fact that the employee is not returning. This period of vulnerability would permit the employee to return to the units which he has serviced and for which he still has a current combination. Additionally, the relatively time-consuming procedure to change combinations in mechanical combination locks where the wheels and gate positions must be changed within the lock, would leave additional time of insecure protection for the vault and the ATM.
One example of a lock which has a one-time use combination is the Electronic CA300 lock manufactured and sold by Sequill Corp., 145 W. Main, Barrington, Ill. This lock is provided with a large plurality of authorized combinations, any one of which will open it. After the combination has been used, the lock acts to disable the used combination so that it may not be reused until such time as the lock is restarted. This lock is used primarily to contain and secure a key to a home or other real property so that a real estate agent may open the box and remove the key for purposes of gaining access to the property in order to show the property to a prospective buyer.
A real estate brokerage may put one of these locks on a house which it has listed for sale and then an agent for another brokerage may contact the listing broker for an access combination. Once that number is provided to the showing agent, a notation may be made as to the agent receiving that combination so that any discrepancy at the property may be correlated with the access of that agent.
This lock does not generate the combinations that are authorized for use. The combination is disabled but may be re-authorized upon a restarting of the lock. Further, all of the authorized combinations are stored within the lock and could conceivably be accessed with appropriate electronic access equipment to reveal other usable combinations within the memory of the lock.
Another example of changing combinations in locks include U.S. Pat. No. 4,511,946 issued to W. A. McGanan wherein a hotel room combination is changed upon the departure of each guest or at the check-in of a guest. The combination which was usable by the preceding guest then becomes unusable. However, this combination is only changed upon change of the guest and is changed as a result of a computer control at the registration desk over an electrical connection to the lock or by an indication to the lock that a new combination has been entered by use of a new key. Only upon the indication that a new combination should be accepted will the lock then disregard the previous combination.